XAG/USD(FOREX) Any experienced traders?

zimok

Click, Whirr.
Oct 27, 2008
2,391
99
0
Canada... eh!
One of my friends is a university student which learnt about the Forex through his course in Finance. He's opened several trading accounts and none of them have failed, he showed me his daily statistics and how much money he's making over the span of months...Looking at his excel reports, he ends up in the profit zone 90% of the time. He follows specific patterns on XAG/USD only and doesn't trade currencies.

I've known this guy since 9th grade high-school and I know he isn't fudging numbers or trying to con me. Being a university student, he's strapped for cash. He says he found a Canadian broker which has all his criteria, the broker only accepts chunks of 2k at a time.

I offered to spot him 1k and he'll produce the rest. We discussed me getting an eroding percentage over time and I'd get whatever ROI he's able to produce within that time. I see the 1k as a gamble, but the potential ROI of him on leveraged winnings would be worth it I think.

At this point, and hopefully someone here has been doing it for quite a while, I have some questions.

1. Is making money on a leveraged 2k feasible on XAG/USD?

2. What are the 'tough' questions I could ask him to try and poke holes into his theory?

3. Any extra advice for him?


The way I see it, the proof is in the pudding, and he's been making a lot of fake pudding with the multiple play money accounts he setup to try and prove his theories wrong. Is there any substantial difference between play/real money that I should ask him to consider?
 


you sure can make money in forex but I dont treat your 1k as not having much risk. He will be taking a lot of risk with your money, but thats why he is getting high returns. Make sure he is getting a tight spread to trade with (the commissions the broker is taking for their profit on the trades)
 
The way I see it, the proof is in the pudding, and he's been making a lot of fake pudding with the multiple play money accounts he setup to try and prove his theories wrong. Is there any substantial difference between play/real money that I should ask him to consider?

I'd make sure that the play money accounts aren't rigged.
 
One of my friends is a university student which learnt about the Forex through his course in Finance. He's opened several trading accounts and none of them have failed, he showed me his daily statistics and how much money he's making over the span of months...Looking at his excel reports, he ends up in the profit zone 90% of the time. He follows specific patterns on XAG/USD only and doesn't trade currencies.

I've known this guy since 9th grade high-school and I know he isn't fudging numbers or trying to con me. Being a university student, he's strapped for cash. He says he found a Canadian broker which has all his criteria, the broker only accepts chunks of 2k at a time.

I offered to spot him 1k and he'll produce the rest. We discussed me getting an eroding percentage over time and I'd get whatever ROI he's able to produce within that time. I see the 1k as a gamble, but the potential ROI of him on leveraged winnings would be worth it I think.

At this point, and hopefully someone here has been doing it for quite a while, I have some questions.

1. Is making money on a leveraged 2k feasible on XAG/USD?

2. What are the 'tough' questions I could ask him to try and poke holes into his theory?

3. Any extra advice for him?


The way I see it, the proof is in the pudding, and he's been making a lot of fake pudding with the multiple play money accounts he setup to try and prove his theories wrong. Is there any substantial difference between play/real money that I should ask him to consider?

Hmm

I trade FOREX and have since 2008 (I used to trade full-time for about 8 months), I even considered joining a firm as a prop trader.

Here are my thoughts: Don't do it.

The only accounts you can trade with for under 5K are Microminis which are dealing desk accounts. Essentially, the broker is trading against you every trade while setting the spread.

Oanda is a very good brokerage to work with, but if you're looking to make big money in FOREX work with a seasoned trader. Problem is, they don't need your money.

P.S. I only trade the Swissy pairs (USD - EUR). I also paper traded with an overall winning record for two years before I ever started with real money and that first real trade was an 80pip gain from a free $25 they (FXCM) gave to start with. I turned it into around 6K over the next five months while being bearish making large moves before unemployment numbers were released, then I deposited my own money... That I ended up losing due to my old gambling habit... ahem

You need to see a definite strategy that can be adjusted with all markets, 99.9% of all technical traders will lose money in the long run. My trading strategy is based on macro-fundamental analysis and I scalp during news hours, but you want to know something?

Making money online is MUCH easier.

Oh yeah, this is post 1,000

hot_titties_from_smoking_babe_361002.jpg
 
Friends and business don't mix, with anybody else it's just business as usual, but with friends I'm personally pissed - Chamillionaire

If you do give him $1k, give it to with the mindset that it's a gift and that you won't get it back because if he loses it, there goes your friendship.
 
  • Like
Reactions: vgeek
I'm not an FX guy, but here's my two cents:

- It is definitely possible that your buddy has a strategy that works, particularly if it's on a small scale. Just like a lot of guys in AM won't bother with certain traffic sources or offers because "it's not worth my time" - the big institutional trading FX won't both with strategies that they don't think are scalable.

- Two of the challenges when moving from paper trading to real funds: 1. Slippage. Good paper trading should incorporate this, but many times the spreads in real life are different. 2. Psychology. It's easy to play when you know it's not real money on the line. Just like it's easy to pull the trigger of a gun in a video game. Once it's real life with real consequences, people act differently.

- View the money as an option. If you lose it, it's $1,000. Defined risk. If you make a profit, great. Then you can re-evaluate whether or not you want to invest more.
 
"The forex market is a zero-sum game, meaning that whatever one trader gains, another loses, except that brokerage commissions and other transaction costs are subtracted from the results of all traders, technically making forex a "negative-sum" game."
 
"The forex market is a zero-sum game, meaning that whatever one trader gains, another loses, except that brokerage commissions and other transaction costs are subtracted from the results of all traders, technically making forex a "negative-sum" game."

Not really, most shops that handle small accounts are techincally trading against you making their own markets based off of spot prices.

There's no actual commission, just the spread which is MUCH higher on micro / dealing desk accounts.
 
Not really, most shops that handle small accounts are techincally trading against you making their own markets based off of spot prices.

There's no actual commission, just the spread which is MUCH higher on micro / dealing desk accounts.

Transaction costs include the effect of the spread. Given how much money these forex firms make off of making their markets, that makes forex trading a negative-sum game.
 
No Proof...

If you give him your money, make sure it is money you are willing to lose.

In fact, when you give it him, DONT expect any return at all.

And quite frankly, if your friend has only demo traded then hes just a virgin.

Real trading is real money. Only novices demo trade. No matter how good his returns are in demo when he goes live he will be fighting a strong force:

Pain, fear,... in essence... his ego.

He will lose the money.

Sorry to say :)

If you do give him it, make sure he risks 0.5% per trade.




One of my friends is a university student which learnt about the Forex through his course in Finance. He's opened several trading accounts and none of them have failed, he showed me his daily statistics and how much money he's making over the span of months...Looking at his excel reports, he ends up in the profit zone 90% of the time. He follows specific patterns on XAG/USD only and doesn't trade currencies.

I've known this guy since 9th grade high-school and I know he isn't fudging numbers or trying to con me. Being a university student, he's strapped for cash. He says he found a Canadian broker which has all his criteria, the broker only accepts chunks of 2k at a time.

I offered to spot him 1k and he'll produce the rest. We discussed me getting an eroding percentage over time and I'd get whatever ROI he's able to produce within that time. I see the 1k as a gamble, but the potential ROI of him on leveraged winnings would be worth it I think.

At this point, and hopefully someone here has been doing it for quite a while, I have some questions.

1. Is making money on a leveraged 2k feasible on XAG/USD?

2. What are the 'tough' questions I could ask him to try and poke holes into his theory?

3. Any extra advice for him?


The way I see it, the proof is in the pudding, and he's been making a lot of fake pudding with the multiple play money accounts he setup to try and prove his theories wrong. Is there any substantial difference between play/real money that I should ask him to consider?
 
before giving him your money, go to alpari-forex.com or any other company offering mini-accounts, let him get a mini-account and trade mini-lots with his own money. if everything goes all right within a month or two scale up.
 
Pretty old thread to bump, and I meant to say thanks all for the advice but the thread already had fallen a few pages.

I ended up not giving him the money. He will succeed, I'm sure of it. I'd rather be on the side and see him go up and still be his friend then run the risk of anything being bitter between us.

If you give him your money, make sure it is money you are willing to lose.

In fact, when you give it him, DONT expect any return at all.

And quite frankly, if your friend has only demo traded then hes just a virgin.

Real trading is real money. Only novices demo trade. No matter how good his returns are in demo when he goes live he will be fighting a strong force:

Pain, fear,... in essence... his ego.

He will lose the money.

Sorry to say :)

If you do give him it, make sure he risks 0.5% per trade.